Sunday, March 25, 2007

Ars Technica on Viacom's DMCA "Driftnet"

In a recent and great article about the Viacom v. YouTube legal fight, Ars Technica covers the not-oft discussed effects of Viacom's automated litigation, including the removal of thttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhe completely-legal-under-fair-use-Parody video of the Colbert Report. From the article:

Finally, the EFF claims that a YouTube lawyer verbally confirmed that the complaint came from Viacom. To the EFF, the entire episode highlights a serious problem: "with Viacom sending more than 160,000 DMCA takedown notices, it may not even be aware which videos it told YouTube to remove. If that's right, then Viacom will inevitably end up censoring some perfectly legitimate videos—surely, the MoveOn/Brave New Films video is not the only example of a fair use that got caught in Viacom's driftnet."